The Story of Crickets - New Inspiration for Vietnamese Animation

“De Men - Adventure to the Swamp” has just been awarded the Golden Lotus Award in the animation category at the 24th Vietnam Film Festival in 2025. The film has contributed to creating new inspirations for Vietnamese animation to develop strongly in the digital age.

Presenting the Golden Lotus Award at the 24th Vietnam Film Festival in 2025.

The big game for Vietnamese animation

The 80-minute-long 3D animated film "Cricket: The Adventure to the Muddy Village" is an adaptation of the classic work "The Adventures of Cricket" by writer Tô Hoài. The film was produced by a collaborative team between CinePlus and the University of Information and Communication Technology (ICTU), Thai Nguyen University.

The film was released in theaters on May 30, 2025, and shortly after, it topped the box office in its genre with an impressive 21.5 billion VND. Director Mai Phuong shared: "The film 'Cricket: The Adventure to the Muddy Village' has achieved a revenue that I think no animated film could ever reach."

“De Men - Adventure to the Swamp” combines modern 3D effects, detailed character and background design, and vivid color graphics. It is considered a step forward for Vietnamese animation as it overcomes the “stiffness” of previous 3D animation.

Doan Trong Phuc, K21a ICTU student, member of the film crew, said: Making the character movements in the film smooth and natural is not an easy task, but my friends and I have done it. Winning the Golden Lotus Award for our first work is a great source of pride for me and the production crew.

The 24th Vietnam Film Festival, held in Ho Chi Minh City at the end of November, was considered a major event for Vietnamese animation in 2025, featuring many meticulously produced works. "Cricket: The Adventure to the Muddy Village" and "Trang Quynh: The Legend of the Golden Bull" were both awarded the Golden Lotus for Best Animated Film, marking a resurgence of Vietnamese animation after a long period of being overshadowed in the market and on the awards red carpet.

After “picking” the Golden Lotus, “De Men: Adventure to the Swamp” will be released internationally by Cineplus in collaboration with CGV. This information was confirmed by producer Vu Duy Nam. This is a good sign for 3D animated films shown in theaters in Vietnam in the future.

According to Associate Professor Phung Trung Nghia, Rector of ICTU, the film industry is a tough game, but "The Cricket - An Adventure to the Muddy Village" has been successful. This success contributes to encouraging those working in culture and arts to change their mindset and approach, creating a trend of exploiting the vast and meaningful treasure trove of Vietnamese culture and literature. It creates entertainment products that meet the goal of promoting the meaning, humanistic values, and cultural significance of Vietnamese culture, while also generating economic value, promoting the development of related fields, and moving towards a new era of the film industry.

Digital art has the potential to change the national creative landscape, inspiring strategies for developing the cultural industry. Along with Vietnamese animation, "The Cricket - An Adventure to the Muddy Village" affirms quality and identity, creating a turning point in Vietnamese cinema with strong faith in animation. Technology and young talent will elevate cinema in particular and art in general when properly invested in.

New directions for cultural economy

3D modeling in "Cricket - The Adventure to the Muddy Village".

“The Adventure to the Swamp” is not just a story about two brave Crickets. It is a story about an industry on the rise; a young generation demonstrating their ability to master technology, moving towards a new era of the film industry in which the Education sector plays an important role.

Not at major cinema centers, for the first time a 3D animated film shown in theaters and winning the Golden Lotus award was made from a digital studio model in Thai Nguyen.

Associate Professor Phung Trung Nghia, Rector of ICTU, added: The film "Cricket: The Adventure to the Muddy Village," co-produced by the university, is not only a work of art but also a testament to ICTU's ability to integrate digital technology, cinematic techniques, artificial intelligence, and modern post-production tools into the content creation process. With the digital studio, we aim to develop a digital media ecosystem applying virtual reality, metaverse, and AI in content production, enhancing creative capacity and technology application in Vietnam's digital content industry, as outlined in Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW.

ICTU has shown that any place can become a center for digital content production. Universities can become “open studios”. The success of the film creates many new paths, new directions.

The success of "Cricket: The Adventure to the Muddy Village" opens up a new direction in the field of cultural and artistic economics. Through culture and art, it solves the problem of promoting the culture, history, and traditional essence of the country while also addressing economic issues and profitability, similar to pioneering countries like South Korea and Japan.

ICTU expects and plans to continue collaborating with producers to create new films based on research into Vietnam's rich cultural and historical heritage, with a strong connection to Thai Nguyen, in order to develop products that spread the image and people of Thai Nguyen to all parts of the country. This aims to attract tourism and investment, bring economic value to the people of Thai Nguyen, and create opportunities for the development of the cultural sector and related fields.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-hoa/202512/cau-chuyen-de-men-cam-hung-moi-cho-hoat-hinh-viet-e5272ed/